This week The Reload published a major story on one of president Joe Biden’s nominees.

It featured a black ATF agent accusing director nominee David Chipman of attempting to derail his career with a false and racially-motivated accusation of cheating on a promotion assessment. A second former agent vouched for his credibility and said he was told about the complaint when it happened. The Department of Justice confirmed Chipman accused an agent of cheating on an assessment.

Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is demanding documents from the department because of the story. His office has also collected additional whistleblower accounts that corroborate the story.

But you wouldn’t know that if you only follow mainstream media outlets. There has not been a single mention of the story in The Washington Post, New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, POLITICO, and so on. It has been radio silence thus far.

That’s despite the fact that many of the country’s top reporters from many of these outlets have vouched for my credibility in the past few weeks. And for years before that.

I think there are those who cry media bias at the drop of a hat and it’s often done in bad faith. But that doesn’t mean the media is beyond reproach. And I’m skeptical this story would have been ignored by these same outlets if Chipman happened to be a Trump or Bush nominee. It’s difficult to envision a legitimate reason those outlets would be incurious about whether the allegations Chipman made a false allegation of cheating against a black agent due to racial bias. 

I would have preferred if my source had been willing to attach his name to his allegation. An identified source is always stronger than an anonymous one. But, as every outlet on all sides of the political divide know well, sometimes people have legitimate reasons for not wanting to be identified. Every major media outlet regularly grants anonymity for far less pressing reasons than those at play here.

The Department of Justice has denied the allegation Chipman harbors any racist beliefs. However, Chipman himself hasn’t issued any denials. The White House hasn’t commented at all.

Isn’t anyone in mainstream media interested in knowing if the potential head of a federal law enforcement agency has held racist believes or even acted on them? Or at the very least interested in seeing him deny the claim?

It’s not that nobody is aware of the story yet. Most outlets have recently covered Chipman’s stalled nomination. And Fox News has covered the racism allegation. So have other conservative outlets including Bearing Arms and Townhall.

USA Today and POLITICO also mentioned the previous allegation an Equal Employment Opportunity complaint was made against Chipman over comments he made implying black agents could not have passed a promotion assessment without cheating while working at the agency’s Detroit office. So, mainstream outlets are aware of these controversies. They’ve simply chosen not to do more with the story thus far.

Maybe more coverage is coming. It’s possible but I’m not holding my breath.

But, in the end, I’m not surprised by any of this. This story probably never would’ve seen the light of day without The Reload. And that’s why I founded The Reload. We’ll break stories that others either can’t or won’t. We’ll scrutinize powerful people. We’ll bring you serious, sober firearms reporting. Always.